Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Catching Up

I've been a bit MIA on the blog lately. Here's what I've been up to:

National Novel Writing Month
I finished at the stroke of midnight on Nov. 30th but didn't validate in time on the website, so I kind of messed that up. They're working on fixing it on the forums. So, I have 50k toward an untitled YA contemporary with a psychological suspense bent--strange where stories lead! It veered a little darker than I expected. Now I have a draft to work with when I'm ready to tackle revisions, maybe later this month.

Blog Contests
Today, the Miss Snark blog hosted the agent bidding for the annual Baker's Dozen pitch contest. I walked away with a requested full manuscript from a really great agent! The entries were strong, and at least 18 out of 60 received full requests by agents, and lots of others landed requested pages. I can't recommend contests enough--they're a great opportunity to get feedback from other writers, agents and editors. I'll be working frantically this week on some edits before submitting my MS again to the winning agent. Worst case scenario: I receive more valuable feedback on how to improve my writing.

Not to mention, all the fun on twitter surrounding different writing opportunities, like Pitch Wars, which is a super cool idea to partner with established writers to polish pitches and opening pages. I'm not participating directly, but I've made connections with potential critique partners through the lively twitter chats (#pitchwars).

Reading
I have a few new book reviews to post soon!

TV Binge
I watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey the day after Thanksgiving when my mom visited. It's only 7 episodes, but it was enough to get she and I demanding Netflix get season 2 right away!

Gaming
Well, sometimes it's nice to do something totally different. Borderlands 2, Dishonored, and Halo 4 were all released this fall. We actually upgraded our Xbox storage from a measly 4G to 200G to accomodate all the mayhem. I swear I'm not a hoarder, but I was really sad to lose my 200+ hours saved game of Fallout 3 to make room for other saved games, no now that's no longer an issue. OK, that sounds like hoarding...

Guest Post Coming Soon!
I have a really great guest author lined up for this month to share editing tips. Stay tuned!

If you can believe, yesterday when the Baker's Dozen bidding went down, I was excited to make an appointment to get the ductwork cleaned out at my house. I got an email about all the excitement from a critique partner saying "congrats, agents are fighting over your story!" and my mouth dropped open. :) I received some great, consistent feedback from a couple other agents over the past month so I'm frantically working on some changes before I resubmit.

SWEET! Congrats on the Baker's Dozen request - that is huge! I've been in love with your MS idea for a while now - so let me just throw this out there - if you'd ever like another set of beta eyes, let me know! (DM at twitter @sbiren)

If you have either Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime I think they both have the second season of Downton Abbey. If you watch the second season this month you get the added benefit of PBS airing the third season starting in January.

I am a little afraid to enter contests, but I have noticed many people landing agents that way. I feel like, with school, I don't get involved online was much as I need to to know about these things. :/ I hope you land an agent!! Good luck!!